What the Cat dragged in
by elesian fields
Summary: Damon drops in on Fangtasia and blackmails Eric into looking after a certain someone... his true love, Bonnie.
1. Chapter 1

True Blood / Vampire Diaries

Damon drops in on Fangtasia and blackmails Eric into looking after a certain someone... his true love, Bonnie.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all characters belong to their own creators.

**What the Cat dragged in**

The night was over, finally. Eric ran his hand through his sweaty hair wishing he had found an excuse to demand Sookie's presence. He had spent the night on his throne glaring at Japanese tourists, who seemed to think it was an act and kept coming back for more – one even attempting to hug him from behind while doing that funny V sign. The guy was lucky to keep his head after Eric threw him into the opposite wall. Bloody cheek!

Lazily, Eric threw his True Blood into the bin behind the bar – disgusting crap, but he was obliged to set a good example to his little followers.

From the corner of his eye, he saw a newcomer dragging a black girl through the back exit. New, young and vampire... so annoying. But he obviously knew the _old _rules, and had brought a gift. Good, the evening was looking up!

***

Bonnie struggled against Damon's vice-like grip as he pulled her into the vampire bar. "I don't want to come in here – why can't I just wait outside? Better still, take me home!"

Her imperious tones always pulled on his heart-strings, if he had a heart. Damon pulled her close and hissed in her ear: "Because it isn't safe, and I have business."

Looking up, Damon stopped abruptly and bowed deeply in Eric's direction.

"Good evening, Sheriff".

Blinking fast, Bonnie suddenly found a huge blond man standing far too close in front of her. Suddenly more afraid than ever, Bonnie shrank back into Damon. Damon looked up, shoved Bonnie forward and made his play with a grin.

"My lord, I require a favour from you... and offer just recompense in return."

Eric smiled at hearing the ritual words of sanctuary. Now, as Sheriff, duty dictated that he accept. But first, what had the naughty boy done? And much as he liked fresh blood – how exactly did this little waif offer recompense? Surely Eric's protection was worth a little more?

Fashioning a frown on his face, Eric gave Damon a searching look and saw black eyes struggling to control rage. Right, so the young vampire had done something wrong, but it was fixable – otherwise he wouldn't be here. All knew that Eric enforced vampire law strictly, and could expect no mercy. Maybe it was a problem with his maker...

While he was musing his answer, Eric reached round to grip the prey's face, intending to compel her into relaxing. But, to his shock, his hand burned and his arm was alight.

Damon laughed, "My lord, my gift is a rare witch. A fire-starter". Grasping Bonnie tighter, he hissed: "Stop that Bonnie, we already talked about your powers. Stop it!"

It hurt so much that Bonnie had tears in her eyes, as she zisched: "One, you know that I can't control it. Two, he's a vampire!"

Damon rolled his eyes "Yes, you can and that's the problem, and hello, it's a vampire bar!".

Bonnie narrowed her eyes, and almost growled out "Fine!".

Eric's pain disappeared, and despite his anger at the witch – Bonnie? – he smiled showing his fangs at his new prize. One that would have to be respected as she could not be compelled, but so useful and all his... He was almost salivating at the thought of some of the things he could get her to do.

Grinning happily in blood lust, Eric turned to Damon and rapidly gave the correct formula:

"If it is in my power to give liege-son, consider me satisfied."

Bonnie suddenly caught up mentally –

"Wait, what... Damon what is going on, I'm not a gift. I am not going to be a gift!"

***


	2. Chapter 2

**What the Cat dragged in**

Disclaimer – I own nothing, all characters belong to their creators.

Chapter 2

Damon laughed and pushed Bonnie towards Eric. "Darling, meet Eric, vampire-lord, who has just accepted you in trade!"

Before Bonnie could start protesting, Damon gave Eric a sharp look asking "My lord, can we speak in private?". Eric nodded and blurred into his office, where he waited for the younger vampire to join him.

"Damon, can I ask what this is really about? What is worth a fire-starter to you?"

Damon held his gaze, before looking down and picking up a wolf ornament as he considered his answer.

"Eric, my maker never formally released my brother and I. But she absented herself shortly after we were turned and now she is back. We live quietly inside your territory, a small town – Mystic Falls. And now Katherine and her entourage are back terrorising us. She can compel my brother and I. She is taking her revenge on our perceived disloyalty."

Throwing the ornament down in despair, Damon's visage bled black as he laughed mournfully. "You asked me what the fire-starter was worth to me. Everything. Katherine wants her dead, and as she has 400 years on me, I can't stop her."

Eric chuckled – "But I can, is that it?"

Damon nodded and sighed: "Look, I know what I'm asking and what I've just done, but I'd rather Bonnie was alive with you than dead. We share a blood bond, and I am bound by oath to protect her lineage. I need you to call a court of the dead so that we can gain our freedom from Katherine and have her disciplined for breaking the code."

Eric gazed into the flickering fire smiling. He could hear the desperation in the young vampire's voice, and he had been right – makers...

"Well, I am sure that something can be sorted. I'll ring the King's agent tonight and let him know of your situation. I'm sure he'll send someone to investigate Mystic Falls. In the meantime you may stay in my nest. Bonnie will stay with me."

He watched with interest as Damon relaxed, as if losing his girlfriend and blood-bonded to a vampire elder, was nothing to worry about. And then he got it. He'd been given an uncompellable witch who could set him on fire if he tried anything. Oh, the young whipper-snapper was good...

Well, that didn't mean he couldn't try to seduce the pretty little witch... oh it had been a while since he'd sampled the blood of an elemental. And as Bill had learned, no one beat Eric at his own game. Sookie was still mooning over that dreg for brains shape-shifter, although he had betrayed her. And until she came to her senses and admitted her love for him, Eric had time to seduce Bonnie.


	3. Chapter 3

***

Bonnie was bored and irritated. She passed the time making the bottles of liquor dance through the air around her.

Being 'given' to Eric as a gift – Damon had obviously totally lost it. She had been enraged when they both disappeared, but it was clear that Damon needed help. Maybe he would get it here, thanks to the vampire prince?

Wow, who knew that vampires had princes and princesses? She considered what she really knew of Damon and Stefan. That both were loyal and brave, was a given. But she knew nothing of their vampire lives, how much loss and sacrifice eternal life entailed.

Would Damon really give her away? Wait, why was she even thinking about this? Damon was ruthless in pursuit of his goals, and right now, it was to get rid of Katherine: of course he would trade Bonnie!

Argh. Why had she believed him when he had said that he needed her, that he couldn't live without her... Of course it was all about Katherine. It was always about Katherine.

Well, two can play that game.

If she belonged to the blond prince now, she would play along – make Damon regret what he had just done.

They had pledged themselves to one another that night in the forest... after he had rescued her from a sorcerer who had been attracted to Mystic Falls by her power. After killing the power-broker, Damon had ripped her off the altar and sprinted them both to a dark glade, where he had laid his dark, cruel and ruthless heart at her feet. He hadn't begged, Damon had insisted she take his blood. Then love and lust had taken over, and by the time the knife appeared, she couldn't say no.

She had thought their love was enough. But then Katherine had returned... like a bad penny that refused to stay lost. Pearl had called her back to Mystic Falls after Damon and Alaric killed too many of her followers.

And Damon had gone running back to the b****, as soon as she had turned up at the boarding house.

Then weeks after she hadn't seen hide nor hair of him, he had turned up in the middle of the night, insisting that they had to leave now or Katherine was going to kill her. Well, she wasn't going to wait for the psychopathic ex-girlfriend to turn up, was she? So here they were, in Bumsville, Georgia.

She jumped as a hand landed on her shoulder, and several of the twirling bottles fell to the floor and smashed. She found herself lifted up and slung over the blond Viking's shoulder –

"Time to eat, you can pay for that later. Fortunately, with your gifts, it shouldn't be too hard..."

Eric chuckled, as he flew back to his nest with his latest conquest in his arms, leaving Damon staring up at them from the car park.

Well, age had to have some benefits, right?

***


	4. Chapter 4

Damon glanced at his watch – it was time he was back in the Falls, making sure that his soppy brother hadn't gotten Elena killed with his constant pleading for her safety. Didn't he know by now that Katherine did not care unless it hurt the brothers?

Watching his beloved Bonnie set Eric on fire had been priceless… Damon allowed himself a smirk as he looked into the night sky. She would be safe with Eric, he would make certain of it.

Katherine would know of course, by now, what had happened – one of her legions had tracked them to the vampire bar. Damon sensed movement behind him, subtle rustling in the trees. But they were too late, and the game now belonged to him. Baring his fangs, Damon's laugh echoed around the empty car park as he sprang onto the roof of his Ford Mustang. Sensing a twitch of branches and a swirl of leaves, he turned toward the approaching vampire and issued his challenge:

"Come out, come out, whoever you are…"

Granted not very original, but he was tired, though not hungry, and there was only about 25 minutes before dawn. But Damon consoled himself that he would probably be older than whatever flunky Katherine had sent to fetch him back. Age meant privileges; whoever faced him through the early morning mist, probably had very few.

But the attack and its strength caught him by surprise, a blow to the head throwing him off the car and onto the asphalt. Feeling a boot to his chest, he grabbed and twisted the ankle, using the leverage to swing the assailant into the trunk of a tree twenty feet away. Blurring there, he had his attacker in a choke-hold before the other had recovered.

Peeling the head back, he realised to his shock that it was a furious looking red-eyed brother who was already struggling against Damon like a bucking bronco.

"Damon, Damon, let me go!"

Great, the wailing had started, as it always did with his little brother after an unsuccessful betrayal. Careful to secure his brother against the tree with a chain of silver, rescued from the bottom of his shoe, he debated his options.

"Look, _mon petit frère_, I know that you didn't come here to help me." Staring shrewdly into his brother's red eyes, he saw shame and misery warring with rage, bloodlust and… yes, love for Katherine. For both of them, it always came back down to Katherine.

Taking his brother's chin in his hands, forcing him to meet Damon's mocking gaze, he continued:

"Let me guess, Katherine has Elena, and you agreed to do whatever it took so that she wouldn't hurt your beloved human copy. She gave you human blood to feed your thirst – it's why you're so strong; and made you take an oath of fealty."

The captive's groans were in the negative, though his eyes told Damon everything. He was entirely Katherine's creature, obedient because he could not be otherwise.

Damon almost lost it, why was his brother always such a predictable idiot? Punching him did not make feel nearly better enough. He, Damon, had saved Bonnie, so why could his moronic brother not have done the same for Elena? Did, he, Damon Salvatore, always have to do everything? The knight in bloody shining armour, indeed…

"What did she tell you to do to me?"

Croaking, his brother dared to grin as he replied:

"Bring you back with the witch, or kill you and bring back your head… If I don't Elena dies. I had no choice".

Damon contemplated his brother's idiocy for another few seconds, before giving his brother another dilemma:

"The sun comes up in 5, I'm sure you can feel it, the drag acting on your bones, pulling you deeper into Orpheus' underworld. Wait, you can't but you will, because I am removing the ring."

Damon pulled the silver chain off his brother and ran for the wind.


	5. Chapter 5

Bonnie raised her glass and toasted her meal with Eric. She was staring at the vampire prince in front of her – he was looking away and for a few seconds a look of extreme pain crossed his face. But as she put her glass to her lips, his intense gaze was back in her face, and whatever had troubled him was seemingly gone.

A lecherous grin appeared as he leaned over to pull a lock of hair out of her face.

"My dear fire-starter, I do hope that you are enjoying the meal I had specially prepared…"

Bonnie started to answer in the affirmative, until she was interrupted by a cold voice behind her.

"You'll certainly need the energy if you're going to keep up with Eric"

Eric leaned back in his antique chair and laughed, lazily answering his progeny:

"Bonnie meet Pam, Pam meet my newest beautiful gift – an elemental witch"

In Swedish Eric hissed: "Be nice!"

Pam stopped, frowning, but a few moments later it hit her, and licked her lips once she understood what Bonnie was. Before even her fangs could pop out, Eric had moved to her side and flung her into the wall. And then, since Pam could not or would not control herself – presumably the memory of that witch in Mexico that they had drained together not 10 years ago, whose blood had been sweet ecstasy, had not faded – she would have to be taught a lesson.

In as much a test of his new acquisition, as of his progeny's obedience, he instructed Pam angrily – "You will stay and whatever happens you will not move! I am your maker and you will obey me."

Moving much faster than Bonnie's eyes could follow, her food now totally forgotten, a chair appeared several metres away with a disgusted and unpenitent Pam roughly pushed into it.

Not quite understanding what had just occurred between the two vampires, Bonnie was confused, had she just witnessed vampiric domestic abuse? Was Eric with Pam? But her musings were interrupted, when she found herself yanked from her chair and into Eric's embrace, whose arms encircled her protectively.

Eric's whispered words found her ear: "You're lucky that you're with me… I do not deny Pam many things, but you". He inhaled her scent: "You are an exception: beautiful, powerful and…"

Knowing that Pam could hear all that he said, Eric smiled viciously as he turned them both to face a bored looking Pam. He pulled away slightly so that he could look into Bonnie's eyes:

"And she just tried to eat you…"

His blood raced as he watched Bonnie's eyes turn murderous – yes, Pam had forgotten that witches were not generally fans of vampires, and deserved whatever she got. This hatred, revealed as her eye flicked from Eric to Pam, just made him want her more. As the flames licked up Pam's wooden chair and the screams started – he knew that it was this, this combustible mix of death-dealing power and righteous vengeance which had attracted Damon.

Damn. Eric had promised to deal with his pesky maker.

Gah, why could he never just enjoy the pleasurable side of things, like the screams of torture?

And then, as if thinking his name brought the devil, a crow flew a little too accurately in through the window.


End file.
